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The Cresset, a journal of commentary on literature, the arts, and public affairs, explores ideas and trends in contemporary culture from a perspective grounded in the Lutheran tradition of scholarship, freedom, and faith while informed by the wisdom of the broader Christian community.

When I was at
Valpo, I spent many hours in the Chapel as a student worker. I was able to
experience the building in a very personal way—much like my engineer friends
experienced Gellersen Hall and my more musically talented friends experienced
the VUCA. It seems to me that buildings on this campus have strong characters,
and that they each embody something important to this institution. However,
none compare to what the Chapel embodies.

These
few years later, I have come to understand that time here is a pilgrimage, and
the Chapel of the Resurrection is Valpo’s central pilgrimage site. You see, the
Chapel embodies something intrinsic to the life of Valparaiso University.
Grounded in its Lutheran Christian tradition, the Chapel of the Resurrection
embodies Valpo’s journey toward the Light of God.

Perhaps
by now you have noticed the Latin phrase In luce tua videmus lucem
portrayed in a variety of ways throughout campus, especially on the Arts and
Sciences building, where it is emblazoned and surrounded by the word “light” in
a plethora of languages. This phrase is both the motto and the essence of VU: In thy light we see light.

The
Chapel embodies VU’s journey toward the Light of God by being an entry point
into a community, a place for all who want to think deeply as well as for those
who simply want to pass by. It is also a place of sending that provides us with
an identity that cannot be easily denied or shaken.

At
the beginning of the academic year, you may have participated in the opening
convocation. Did you see the world that was sitting beside you, behind you, in
front of you, and throughout the Chapel on that day? Did you see the world
becoming a part of your community and you becoming a part of the world’s
community? Did you experience yourself becoming a new individual? If you were
anything like I was at my opening convocation, I venture to guess that you most
likely did not. That’s okay.

The
Lutheran Christian tradition believes that God, through the Holy Spirit and
because of Christ, draws all of humanity to God’s own self and transforms it
for the good of the world. This happens without our doing anything, per se. In
a way, the Chapel functions in a similar way.

On
that opening convocation day, you became a fellow pilgrim with people from all
over this country and the entire planet. You became a member of a sojourning
group of people who gathered with you, on Valpo’s campus, in the Chapel.

At
the end of the opening convocation the bells rang, you were dismissed, and you
started to live into your Valpo experience. You may choose to never again step
foot inside the Chapel. That’s okay. Your days will still be marked by its
existence. Those bells keep ringing: every fifteen minutes, every day of the
week, every week in a month, every month of the year, for four years. They ring
steady like a heartbeat.

While
I was at VU, the Chapel staff played hymns on the campanile ten minutes before
chapel break every day. I specifically remember the day that a friend who is an
atheist mentioned to me that she had heard the bells playing Amazing Grace as she walked to the library, and that it
brightened her day. Now when we get together, we chat about things that are
important for the good of the world. Often she mentions how, even as an
atheist, she felt VU steered her toward thinking deeply about her existence and
its implications.

The
Chapel continues to do this for us even when we are not physically present
there, and as it sends us out of this place into the greater world. A
pilgrimage never truly ends, but transforms into another journey.

The
Chapel is here for just that purpose: to prepare you for the travels awaiting
you. It does this by being a place to think deeply about your place in this
world and by carrying you in its prayers as you grow and leave. The theologian
Joerg Rieger reminds us that life, as faith, is not a static thing. This
existence in perpetual movement as an act of faith and this living, Rieger
tells us, is a part of the human story.

As
you live into who you are called to be, please know this: The Chapel community
never stops praying for you.

One
day in December or May, you will find yourself in a cap and gown, hugging
friends, taking pictures with beaming people who love you, and saying goodbye
to this campus as you go out into the world, much as I did.

On
my last day here as a student, I sat on a pew in the Chapel with four close
friends. At the beginning of my time at Valpo I had not known a single one of
them, but over the years, as the bells tolled, we ultimately spent hours
together, learning, growing, and living.

We
studied different disciplines and came to differing opinions, but our shared
experience at Valpo was marked by the Chapel, which brings together aspiring
economists, politicians, actors, and theologians in the common search for
Light. The site that had gathered us in was now sending us out to new ventures
that carried us all over the United States and into the world. Just as it will
be for all of you.

I
leave you with these words from Martin Luther, wishing you well on your
pilgrimage:

This life, therefore, is not righteousness; but growth in
righteousness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but
exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The
process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is
the road. All does not yet gleam, but all is being purified in glory. (Luther,
24)

David Rojas Martínez graduated in 2015 as a Christ College Associate with
majors in international service and theology. He is currently pursuing a master
of divinity degree at Luther Seminary and is a soon-to-be deacon of the
Lutheran Deaconess Association.